Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Illuminor Szeras
Illuminor Szeras
Legendary Artifact Creature — Necron · {2}{B} · Black commander
Secrets of the Soul — {T}, Sacrifice another creature: Add an amount of {B} equal to the sacrificed creature's mana value.
Build an Illuminor Szeras deck →
What Illuminor Szeras actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Activated ability{T}, Sacrifice another creature: Add an amount of {B} equal to the sacrificed creature's mana value.
- Keyword · secrets of the soulsecrets of the soul
What an Illuminor Szeras deck needs
Plays as aristocrats. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- expendable creatures with high mana value (each is that much black mana)
- haste and untap effects that reach the commander
The Illuminor Szeras deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 12× Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
- 9× Untap the commander so the tap ability is an engine, not a one-shot
- 20× Creatures you are happy to sacrifice — a free sac outlet on the commander is worthless with nothing to feed it
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
- 7× Refill your hand
- 2× Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- 11× Get ahead on mana
Best cards for Illuminor Szeras
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
- Thousand-Year Elixir3 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- Lavaspur Boots1 mana
- Sting, the Glinting Dagger2 mana
- Krang, Utrom Warlord9 mana
- Haunted Cloak3 mana
Untap the commander so the tap ability is an engine, not a one-shot
- Sting, the Glinting Dagger2 mana
- Umbral Mantle3 mana
- Genji Glove5 mana
- Honor-Worn Shaku3 mana
- Sword of the Paruns4 mana
- Unwinding Clock4 mana
- Deserted Temple0 mana
- Leyline Dowser2 mana
Creatures you are happy to sacrifice — a free sac outlet on the commander is worthless with nothing to feed it
- Nurgle's Rot1 mana
- Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead5 mana
- Phyrexian Triniform9 mana
- Exquisite Huntmaster4 mana
- Grixis Slavedriver6 mana
- Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer3 mana
- Hangarback Walker0 mana
- Enduring Tenacity4 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
- Fatal Push1 mana
- Bitter Triumph2 mana
- Black Sun's Twilight1 mana
- Cut Down1 mana
- Erebos's Intervention1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Grim Tutor3 mana
- Tainted Pact2 mana
- Scheming Symmetry1 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Toxic Deluge3 mana
- Damnation4 mana
- Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
- Sickening Dreams2 mana
- Crypt Rats3 mana
- Extinction Event4 mana
- Endemic Plague4 mana
- The Meathook Massacre2 mana
Refill your hand
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Black Market Connections3 mana
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
- Morbid Opportunist3 mana
- Phyrexian Arena3 mana
- The One Ring4 mana
- Vexing Bauble1 mana
- Ayara, First of Locthwain3 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Cryptothrall4 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Eldrazi Monument5 mana
- Commander's Plate1 mana
- Mithril Coat3 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- The Walls of Ba Sing Se8 mana
Get ahead on mana
- Sol Ring1 mana
- Palladium Myr3 mana
- Worn Powerstone3 mana
- Chrome Mox0 mana
- Everflowing Chalice0 mana
- Mox Diamond0 mana
- Mana Vault1 mana
- Wayfarer's Bauble1 mana
Combos with Illuminor Szeras
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Illuminor Szeras is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Illuminor Szeras + Nim Deathmantle + Dross Scorpion452 decks
- Illuminor Szeras + Nim Deathmantle + Voltaic Construct259 decks
- Illuminor Szeras + Nim Deathmantle + Thornbite Staff238 decks
- Illuminor Szeras + Gravecrawler + Thornbite Staff36 decks
- Illuminor Szeras + Nim Deathmantle + Umbral Mantle36 decks
- Illuminor Szeras + Nim Deathmantle + Sword Of The Paruns14 decks